Haaretz answers four key questions on the Anat Kam case

Yes Or is Israel a completely totalitatian and theocratic state? What happened to the only democratic state in the Middle East?

blowing his own trumpet.if that were not the case i would let him have the benefit of the doubt. i do not share stupid statements accusing him of spying.he loves himself too much.far too chirpy to be a good journalist.

much like their counterparts in the united states army or the american air force targetting terrorists with drones. or the sas killing the ira in ulster.if the idf did the same they were and are not unique.

i was there when you first learnt the word "hubris".glad to see you make full use of the word. good to hear ben gurion mentioned by you.

I think you , Haaretz journalits, do not realize the harm you do to Israel. Why do we need to know evrything? We have a country and the world is so happy to be able to say that Israel is a terrible country and that it has to disappear. You are a dream for Europeans and a shame for the Jews.

"one must "hope such criminal investigation of IDF officers involved in illegal assassination still takes place...", since this blackens the good name of Israel..." - Esther This is a good enough reaon to prosecute. But fundamentally, the army must internalize the fact that the civilian authority is supreme, or we will be in deep trouble. (I believe Ariel Sharon once suggested to Dayan to initiate a coup d'etat, when they were both soldiers.) We have a situation today where the Supreme Court ordered the dismantling of a settlement (Migron) built on Arab land, and therefore cannot be made legal retroactively by the state. This was years ago, but Migron is still there.

...of IDF officers involved in illegal assassination still takes place...", since this blackens the good name of Israel...

...motivated purely by ideology"... which surely absolves her of deliberate "criminal intent"... ...moreover, she did not betray her country or her colleagues, but believed she was doing what was ultimately right and noble for her country, at her own peril... ...whether this was too simplistic an attitude, she will learn from the punishment that will be meted out to her...

"All the reports Uri Blau published in Haaretz based on his documents were submitted to the military censor and approved by her before publication, as required by law." - Haaretz Therefore Haaretz cannot be accused of harming national security. Israelis are allowed to read only what is approved as not harmful by the censors. What happened to that scrappy little democracy where truth and discourse were weapons for the public to keep the government in line? How has it become a nation where the right and the army can determine what everyone may read concerning the national policies which have defamed Israel in recent decades. How can almost anyone in the world aside from Israelis read the whole story of what is going on across the 'security barrier.'

'Hubris' is over-weening pride or self-confidence as when a man or state shows itself to be God-like." - definition In recent months we are witnessing the failure of one Israeli security organization after another. The common thread is "Hubris". It reminds one of the period following the six-day war victory which ended when Hubris prevented the recognition of the war to come (on Yom Kippur). To wit: 1. The Mossad operation in Dubai. Using 27 agents to assassinate an easily replaceable person, thus risking, and probably losing, these agents' ability to remain anonymous. Israelis understand this crazy failure, and the Mossad chief will be replaced this year. 2. Shin Bet goes on an expedition to harass and silence Uri Blau, a journalist doing his job to the benefit of the State, like many others, just because he exposes criminal behavior by IDF officers. (Reminds me of Nixon trying to use the CIA to explain away the Watergate crew.) 3. Very high level IDF officers plot assassination of Palestinian militants who could otherwise be arrested, in complete disregard to Supreme Court decisions. Why not, if the Defense Minister disregards the Court order to evacuate ILLEGAL settlements. What is going on? I think we have forgotten a few basics which Ben-Gurion was very aware of: "In righteousness shalt thou be established: depart far from oppression, and thou shalt not fear; and from terror, and it shall not come near thee." - Isaiah 54:14

Anat Kamm should be charged with divulging state secrets, not with the "aggravated" (i.e. "serious") part which requires "intent to harm the state". Where did the Shin Bet get her "intent" from? From her actions, it seems Ms. Kam was rather responsible, giving the documents only to one journalist, an Israeli and not a foreigner, who would then publish it only subject to official censorship requirements. In any case, I am at a loss to see why there was any gag order in this case. The IDF commits illegal acts and the court helps it hide them. Sunlight, as it is said, is the best disinfectant.

I don't see how you can compare Vietnam to Israel. The US was never under any similar type of threat Israel is still under. The US was naive at the start as they believed it would be easy and quick to squash the Viet Cong. All that the press did was to save the lives of American soldiers. They did not save the Republic which is not quite the same thing as a Democracy. Israel is a Democracy which does not have many tools to defend itself in a neighborhood of dictators and terrorist groups. This point is not understood by many on the Left who are willing to see the Jewish state commit suicide with its hands tied behind its back.

I am a little puzzled, doesn't being in possession of stolen goods/material make the holder as guilty as the one providing him with the goods. I feel ah'aretz have gone too far with the free speech scenario.Kam should be prosecuted for stealing sensitive military documents. Blau should be prosecuted for being in possessions of this material, reporters are not above the law. even if the assumption is that the army is breaking the law. if one breaks the law to uncover another supposed crime that does not give him immunity. it is the same when a reporter is in possession of information that someone is about to kill another and keep it to himself. is he part of the murder ? could he by reporting save life? does reporters are above the right to life.

in measured intelligence? Very simple: One of the questions in the test of intelligence is reading: Why do you need a free press in a democratic society. The conservatives don?t have a clue! This question makes all the difference.

As described here and by Akiva Eldar, Israeli law is way too broad when describing the mere possession of classified information as "espionage", even when the possessor is a journalist who had the information leaked to him so that he can expose some wrongdoing or a malfunction of the system. Journalism is essential in helping keep governmental systems cleansed on a continuous basis. The obvious solution to this is to explicitly EXCLUDE journalists from this part of the law (as in the US), provided they don't give the information to others or publish it abroad, but only publish it in Israel and subject to the military censor's requirements. Incidentally, the leakers of the information should be subject to all existing laws. I don't feel sorry for Anat Kamm. She had the option of providing the documents to the State Comptroller, or the Attorney General, or the President of the Supreme Court, and they would have started a serious investigation of the matter. I hope such criminal investigation of IDF officers involved in illegal assassination still takes place.

all the document they stole from us they stole plenty???

Every Israeli and every American Zionist can tell you the IDF holds great pride in instructing high schoolers in civics class that you cannot obey an illegal order. This "line" from the High Court is one of those "moral" tropes that's dragged out on a regular basis. Now we have someone who is exposing illegal army orders by violating her orders of secrecy and all any Israeli or American Zionist can do now is claim she should be punished. I stopped believing anything this state said years ago. I suggest everyone else wake up and do the same. They don't protect us, they help themselves and whip everyone into a frenzy so we'll die for their goals. What a shame.

HAHAHAHAH! "Does Haaretz's insistence on protecting its reporter and his sources in the Anat Kam affair endanger state security?" You have to justify your behavior...omg, this is too much. In 2010, a paper has to defend itself against treason? Wow, we're screwed.

Driven solely by emotion, they pick and choose the LAWS they like and violate the ones they don`t. The good news is that this revealed weaknesses that will be addressed by the IDF before more self-destructive individuals attempt to perpetrate fatal blows to the State of Israel.

It is one thing to believe in a free press. It is quite another for the press to defend its own actions and to adopt the defense of its reporter who may have violated state law. The way I read Haaretz's responses- it could well be that Haaretz is an accomplice.

Guys, your whole attitude left you as the institutions that you criticize. Im very dissapointed of Haaretz.

Those who violate and steal military secrets for any purpose should be punished to the full extent of the Law. Endangering the State of Israel is a serious crime indeed.

Stolen wares should be returned immediately to the rightful owner- no questions, agreements or else. Otherwise the one holding them is a common thief, not a "freedom fighter journalist". And one more question to add: Would anyone on the Haaretzpstaff (including the Editor) like to his/her son/daughter to serve in the Army and go on an operarion when the plans for the same are in the "safe" hands of Mr Blau??

Scary, but I do not know what is scariest: the seemingly extremely week position of the press, the inability to distinguish between wanted (or unwanted) wistleblowing and spying, the inability to distinguish between investigative journalism and spying, possible corruption, death squads or some of the bloggers. As a person mainly living in the Nordic countries, I am also a little interested in the stockholmish blogger ?Absolute Swede?. I agree with him that quality vodka (of any brand) tastes far better than cheep unclean vodka, but I totally disagree with the views he expresses in these blogcolumns. So there you have it, to iceman viewpoints and still so different. I really hope I am closer to the vast majority of the icy ones.

the terrorists are usually dangerous and i would not advise the soldiers to take a risk.if the enemy is about to put the lives of soldiers in danger.then shoot them before they shoot. as to the judgements of those who were not there i suggest we avoid speculation. did senior officers tell soldiers not to take risks.that would certainly be the case.

To the Haaretz Team, The military sensor cleared publication of the information you presented. There is no justification for the current actions by Shin Bet. Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, and it is most important to keep these values of Israel intact. Keep up the good work.

Haaretz, it is your duty to forward copies of all documents to the War Crimes Tribunal to insure that IDF Generals guilty of war crimes in the 2nd Lebanon War and Operation Cast Lead are punished. Plus the Generals are being paid millions in shekels for over-using weaponry. If one bullet will do the job, Generals order 10,000 fired. If one missile or bomb will do the trick, Generals order 1 thouand missiles and a thousand bombs be used. Why? They have to resupply themselves with all the used up bombs and bullets and weapons, missile & ammunition contractors to the IDF pay the generals millions of shekels for wasting government-tax payer dollars. When they resupply the IDF they charge double their past costs and bribe the generals. This is why over 1 million unexploded bomblets were fired into S. Lebanon villages where there were no Hizbullah and why Dan Halutz ordered IDF to bomb Gaza Apt. bldg. that killed 16 kids. No general fought in 2006 war but all received huge bribes.

of all those involved the onus was on haaretz to show the most responsibility.haaretz failed.

First how can low ranked soldier take such important papers with her? second how stupid to write illigeal things ,which by definition can't be official as we say we are a democratic country, on paper. The IDF should more be concerned to be ready for a war, and to be prepared. The harm to the state of israel is done by it self. These journalist did not reveal secrets which harm or endanger any israeli soldier. It show only how stupid our IDF and security still is

And to further quote Haaretz: "...the Shin Bet *claimed* that Anat Kam, who is *suspected* of giving the documents to Blau, gave him 2,000 documents. In the meantime, this number has been reduced to 700 documents classified "secret" and above." As well, no mention of "Battle Plans". Operational plans because these operations were in violation of a direct High Court ruling, presumably, targeting lists and troop deployments would be fair game to support her allegations of this same High Court violation. Meeting memorandum because that was where the conspiracy to commit these crime took place...in other words, evidence. Haaretz went through the proper procedures and self censored the material to publish only what was relevant to the crimes they were investigating. Kam took a huge risk, and I am certain she knew what was at stake, and I applaud her courage and her patriotism. Every country needs more brave people like her.

i had vigorously criticsed the former idf head halutz for not preparing the army properly and sending soldiers to battle without food and proper equipment. those lacuns were widely reported at the time. i had also criticised olmert for corruption. however, what this girl did and what blau is doing is unconscionable.

Spies,traitors,helping the ennemy etc. This hysteria would be ridiculous even if the military censor would not have permited the publication of those facts. But since this the case,to ignore it is either stupidity or bad faith. To be polite I chose bad faith.

...before or after the fact, and not divulging it to a responsible authority is a crime. That Kam did not entrust the Shin Bet or the State Prosecutor is perfectly understandable, considering the amount of graft and corruption we, sadly, are experiencing within the government and the IDF and the lack of investigation, if not outright collusion, by these two PUBLIC institutions. The Military Censor's Office was well aware of the nature of the documents Haaretz was to publish and did not consider them to be a breach of state security, to their credit. I have worked with the censor's office before and found them to be, not only professional, but outright helpful at times. I wish I could say the same about the Police. If only other branches of Israel's authorities would act according to the law, and not hide behind "national security" or apathy, Israel would truly make the desert bloom, as it once dreamed and did. Turning a blind eye to corruption is corruption itself.

"the file allegedly included operational plans, meeting memoranda, troop deployments, research studies, target lists and more." (from "ex-soldier charged with espionage..." by ofra edelman, haaretz, 9 april)

Did Anat Kam take any documents from the general's office that referred to any operational plans of the IDF?

The real story is that illegal actions were being carried out by the government & army. Just because laws are created by the government does not make all their actions legal.

she illegally copied and tranfered thousands of military documents while serving in the idf. she did not simply pass a few troubling pices of information. she took all she could. she betrayed her country and she betrayed her fellow soldiers. furthermore, we do not know the full extent of her perfidy. there is still a partial gag order in place. no excuse whatever can justify her acts. nor can blau's act be justified. indeed, he is more culpable since he is older and should know better. these were acts motivated purely by ideology without regard to the state's security.

During two years, day after day Anat Kam stole military information. It doesn`t matter if she is a civilian now. She should be prosecuted by a military court and not by a civilian one.

Would you please quote me where it says anything about "Battle Plans" or other such militarily sensitive information? All I have seen is mention of documents showing impropriety of our leaders in their personal financial gain from their positions entrusted to them by the Israeli taxpayer. If you are such a patriot, where is your outrage over these disgusting acts of greed and avarice by our entrusted leaders? Exposing the corrupt elements within our own society does not weaken Israel, but strengthens it. If your son or daughter in the IDF had to use substandard equipment that was purchased by the IDF as a result of corrupt procurement by one of these entrusted PUBLIC SERVANTS, and was subsequently harmed due to it, I am sure your tune would change very quickly.

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Polygraph tests have been shown to be very unreliable, at best, and very subjective to the tester's point of view. Furthermore, not everyone exhibits the same physiological response to stress, and being hooked up to a machine under threat of loss of liberty is VERY stressful.

For a start, I think the fact that articles need to be approved by a 'military censor' prior to publication, is a strong argument against the notion that Israel has a free press. It's certainly not common in other democracies.

This has nothing to do with Free Press or democracy. It is simply about decency and the defence of spying against your own country. Mr. Blau may be a journalist (and therefore more important than G-d) but he is behaving with unbelievable arrogance and stupidity. He was treated with kid gloves and afforded every opportunity to return highly secret documents which he KNEW had been stolen by Ms. Kamm. He should do the decent thing and return them immediately. How HAARETZ can defend him is beyond me. Ms. Kamm's motives are a mystery but she has obviously carried out a serious crime and no cute explanations of how "she loves Israel" etc. etc. can explain her actions. We all have children who served in such sensitive departments in the army but none of them stole secret material.

Calling Anat Kam a "spy" is a play on our national sentiment that's being made by those whose motives are being served by the things revealed and threatened to be revealed by her whistleblowing. She's no more a spy than the soldiers of conscience who stepped forward after Cast Lead, and those who talk to Breaking the Silence. She was exposed to wrongdoings during the course of her service, just as they were, and the only real difference is that her story could be printed in the mainstream media instead of being buried in the archives of some NGO website, because she could provide physical proof that could not be discredited and swept under the rug as fabrications and hearsay, which is the IDF norm. That's why she's being hung out to dry, while many other whistle blowers haven't been. Also, she did not steal the documents, she copied them. And if the material was sensitive to national security, why were the articles resulting from it approved for publication by the IDF censor?

...under the protection of "State Secrets" is itself a breach of law and even more importantly, a serious breach of the Public Trust. A citizen has a moral and legal obligation to expose criminal activity when they become aware of it, especially at the upper echelons as breaches at the top affect far more people than petty criminals. The Shin Bet changed the rules of the game and retroactively made Blau's action illegitimate, an act which every Israeli citizen should be seriously concerned about. Those officers involved in this action should be brought before the courts to answer for their actions. Thank G-d for a newspaper like Haaretz. I may not always agree with their editorial positions, but it is a true champion of the rule of law and a free press.

it is shocking that one person could have access to so many top secret documents. it is equally shocking that this soldier could simply copy top secret documents for two years and transfer them to her personal computer. this aspect of the case is more troubling than the theft itself.

Care to indicate where it is?

Would you care to provide YOUR definition of "free press"?

That's the real question here. Why did HaAretz and Blau give up Kam's identity so quickly and so easily. They are the real collaborators here. Shame, shame, shame.

Can be trusted on past performnce to shout headlines first and resist publishing criticism from those who were actually there,where the hearesay orginated.

And is London Blau was yesterday in, a safe place for an Israeli with state secrets ?

Haaretz is publishing articles effectively investigating itself. It's track record of deliberate lies to damage the State of Israel is so long; it has no trust in this story either. haaretz is good however in censoring criticism against haaretz; we just don't believe what you print any more.

Depends if you think the US was saved by the revelation to the public, by the press, of its intentions in Viet Nam. It certainly influenced the eventual decision to withdraw, wouldn't you say?

The question is whether she was jeopardizing the security of the country or protecting it. There is no evidence to show that she was willing to pass on the information to anyone who would abuse it. On the contrary, she ensured it would undergo military censorship by sharing it only with an accredited Israeli journalist on an accredited Israeli newspaper. There are only two real questions in this story. One is whether you can steal computer information (i.e. did those who have access to it formally undertake not to?). The other is whether the information in question incriminates the IDF and the security services.

Haaretz... the more you try, the worst it looks for you. I do not necessary share most of the views on your newspaper, but I always believed Haaretz is the most credible source of news in Israel. I believe your journalist, editor and newspaper committed a crime in this case. Nothing you say in the newspaper will make things better for you. Only will make us understand, that you are not different the others in the midia... if not worst! That is a shame for a newspaper with your credibility.

anat kamm, while a member of the idf, illegally stole thousands of secret military documents from the idf. uri blau illegally received those documents. he refuses to give back those documents. such broad theft of documents and their receipt cannot be justified as an exercise of freedom of press. the documents stolen contain many top secret idf operational plans, battle plans and personnel identities. blau should turn them over to the authorities and stop hiding out in the uk. he needs to face the people of israel. the claim by haaretz that he has not passed secrets to enemies needs to be proven. since the documents are still missing, we are all in the dark as to what really happened to those documents.

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Shin Bet's stated intention to subject Uri Blau to lie-detector or polygraph "testing" is a sure sign of bad faith. Polygraphy is a pseudoscientific fraud that involves the polygraph operator lying to and otherwise deceiving the person being "tested" and depends on the naivete and gullibility of the latter. In short, the lie detector is little more than an interrogator's ruse. In Uri Blau's case, the unstandardized, unscientific procedure will give Shin Bet the flexibility of branding him a liar if, for any reason, they are not pleased with his answers. I'm a co-founder of AntiPolygraph.org, a non-profit, public interest website dedicated to exposing and ending waste, fraud, and abuse associated with the use of polygraphs and other purported "lie detectors." See our site for a thorough debunking of polygraphy.

Clearly Uri Blau and Ha'Aretz need to attend a course for them to learn the definition of a free press. Sadly they seem to practice abuse of priviledge more readily.

...be accused. Let the law judge the case. Anat Kam was a soldier when she stole all those military documents.Period.

I add my support for you Haaretz and Uri Blau - you are champions of Democracy.

France, Germany, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela..... the list goes on. Gilad144 @ 4 - doing a good job does not give you carte blanche to do anything you like.

The article says that Blau left on vacation with no classified documents in his possession That's fine. What it does not answer is whether or not Blau has access to such documents. Just because I don't pack these documents in a suitcase or keep a copy of them on my laptop does not mean that I cannot access them remotely. It also does not mean that someone is not keeping these documents on Blau's behalf. Both the question and the answer to this question are intellectually dishonest. But I guess this is to be expected from a newspaper who tried to deceive english speaking readers by butchering the translation of a simple hebrew word to make it seem like the Israeli public viewed Obama as fair.

i would have expected haaretz to deny any connection with blau and the stealing of top secret documents. in this article, they are admitting to working with him. i think that they need to investigate the editors of haaretz since it seems that they were in on this. they think that they can break the most serious of laws and get away with it. perhaps haaretz should be shut down.

Haaretz has to come clean about its role in the theft of 2000 documents of which 700 were top secret. No indeed no theft of documents will ever bring Israel down however espionage can harm us and bring lives in danger. Moreover Haaretz added in a crime which is the theft of documents. Haaretz thinks it can negotiate with the state as if the public is not involved. Haaretz can legally wrangle the state and force it to a plea bargain still the public knows what kind of people were involved and that they are part of the extreme left which prefers to uphold right of our enemies rather than defend our own Jewish people. Haaretz come clean and listen to the talk backs and the other news papers and answer us what was your involvement, since when did u receive documents, since when did Blau see documents and did he instruct Kam to steal more documents. This should be answered and we want it in public. No gag orders should apply to Haaretz. The public and the democracy has the right to know.

The answers to the so called questions are weak at best. A spy is a spy and both should be treated as such.

Haaretz's question and answer #3 above proves Haaretz has been and is part of a group who intended and did steal state secrets. Both the newspaper and Mr. Blau ought to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Israel is a country at war. As such, the very least it can expect of its citizens is for them not to steal secret documents and most certainly not publish them.

Haaretz is being folly with Israel's security as the level of free press being proposed has never proven to be the guardian of a nation under existential threat from its neighbors. In an all out war in the region, the Palestinians will play their part in trying to disrupt movement on the ground in Israel that could seriously affect Israel's ability to defend herself, and don't let anyone convince you otherwise.

freedom of the press does not mean abuse of a priviledge. If freedom of the press, means jeopardizing the security of the country and ultimately, it's citizens, then the obvious takes priority.

... did not abscond to London with the documents, and the documents are safe and sound at Haaretz? You are saying that you cannot cooperate with Shin Bet in giving back these documents because, they are now all mixed up with other Blau documents that would embarrass the government, and you could not un-mix them? So, in effect, you are not cooperating with Shin Bet so as to spare the government more pain? And you are saying you are answering key questions? Easy, now, pardner. Small shovel here.

In what circumstances do you think it is appropriate for a soldier to share classified or secret IDF documents with a reporter?

Being a police state is a way of life that doesn't segment itself: a police state for Arabs in Israel's 'occupied territories' is a police state for all its citizens.

authorities? Why? It does not take a genius to clearly recognize the behavior of a tyrannical government. Like a good citizen, Hareetz cannot now play the innocent in this ugly affair. If Harretz wants the world to see what the Israeli government has done, is doing , and will continue to do, then, it is time that Harretz to call a spade a spade: Israel has now become a fascist, criminal, state! Any other position that Hareetz takes in the name of "reasonableness" will show the obvious: Hareetz is just as much part of this sick mentally; Israeli mentality. Bradley and Gideon, and the others, look out, they are coming after you. Might be a good time to move to London.